Jax Skye, PhD, 2024-2026

Mentor: Dorit Kliemann, PhD, and James Traer, PhD

Graduate School: University of Iowa Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience

INSPIRE research: How low-level auditory feature perception contributes to understanding emotion from speech in autism, schizophrenia, and depression.

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Iowa Psychological and Brain Sciences

Mackenzie (Spicer) Rysted, PhD, 2023-2025

Mentor: Nandakumar Narayanan, MD, PhD

Graduate School: University of Iowa

INSPIRE research: Identifying the basic neural circuit mechanisms underlying cognitive dysfunction

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Indiana Biosciences Research Institute

Grace Kim, PhD, MD, 2023-2025

Mentor: Jacob Michaelson, PhD

Graduate School: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Medical School: University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago

INSPIRE research: Understanding the genetic basis of sleep disruption in autism spectrum disorder.

Current Position: Psychiatry Resident, University of Pittsburgh

Mark Bowen, PhD, 2023-2025

Mentor: Matthew Howard III, MD

Graduate School: University of Iowa

INSPIRE Research: The effects of 2 kilohertz intracranial electrical stimulation of the human arcuate fasciculus on auditory working memory.

Current Position: Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, University of Iowa

Emily Steinbach Swehla, PhD, 2024-2026

Mentor: Lyndsay Harshman, PhD

Graduate School: University of Iowa

INSPIRE research: Investigating the effect of iron chelation therapy on brain outcomes

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Iowa Department of Pediatrics

Allison Momany, PhD, 2022-2024

Mentor: Lane Strathearn, MD PhD
Graduate School: University of Iowa
INSPIRE research: Prenatal and neonatal risk factors and genetic and epigenetic mechanisms in the development of neurodevelopmental disorders (ADHD, autism, etc.), with a particular focus on the development of these disorders in infants born preterm.
Current Position: Post-Doctoral Research Scholar, Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, University of Iowa

Gail Harmata, PhD, 2021-2023

Mentor: Vince Magnotta, PhD
Graduate School: University of Iowa
INSPIRE research: How neuroimaging can be used as a predictive tool for bipolar diagnosis and/or symptoms
Current Position: Post-Doctoral Research Scholar, Department of Radiology, University of Iowa

Alexandra Bova, PhD, 2021-2023

Mentor: Nandakumar Naranayan, MD
Graduate School: University of Michigan
INSPIRE research: How changes in striatal dopamine levels influence striatal projection neuron activity during interval timing

Serena Bunu Gumusoglu, MSc, PhD, 2022-2024

Mentor: Mark Santillan, MD PhD
Graduate School: University of Iowa
INSPIRE research: Gestational serotonin in maternal-fetal inflammation and child ASD risk
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa

Amanda Benavides, MD PhD, 2018-2021

Mentor: Peg Nopoulos, MD
Graduate School: University of Iowa
Medical School: University of Iowa
INSPIRE Research: Neurodevelopmental outcomes of premature infants: effects of anemia and its treatment
Current Position: Psychiatry Resident, University of Iowa

Aubrey Chan, MD PhD, 2018-2020

Mentor: John Wemmie, MD PhD
Graduate School: University of Utah
Medical School: University of Utah Medicine
Psychiatry Residency: University of Iowa
INSPIRE Research: Role of acid-sensing ion channel plays in the defensive response to CO2 exposure in mice.
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa

Amanda Decker, PhD, 2019-2021

Mentor: Mark Niciu, MD PhD
Graduate School: University of Iowa
INSPIRE Research: Understanding the subanesthetic doses of ketamine and its metabolites on cellular respiration in human neurons.
Current Position: Biomedical Editor, General Dynamics Information Technology

Jessica DeWitt, PhD, 2017-2019

Mentor: Hanna Stevens, MD PhD
Graduate School: University of Southern California
INSPIRE Research: Evaluated the role of oxidative stress pathway abnormalities in basal ganglia, related to BCAA catabolism that resulted in autism spectrum disorder-like behaviors in mice. 
Current Position: Associate Medical Director, Symbiotix

Karina Kruth, PhD, 2020-2022

Mentor: Aislinn Williams, MD PhD
Graduate School: University of Iowa
INSPIRE Research: Molecular dysfunction of bipolar disorder 
Current Position: Postdoc, University of Iowa

Deniz A. Madencioglu Kul, PhD, 2020-2022

Mentor: Aislinn Williams, MD PhD
Graduate School: Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany
INSPIRE Research: My INSPIRE project is investigating how copy number variations in the human genome play a role in psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia.
Current Position: Postdoc, University of Iowa

Sara Maurer, PhD, 2020-2022

Mentor: Hanna Stevens, MD PhD
Graduate School: Duke University
INSPIRE Research: My project explores the mechanism of prenatal stress-induced alterations in offspring brain and behavior. Specifically, I am examining whether the cytokine IL-6 is sufficient to induce the cellular changes in the developing striatum seen after prenatal stress.
Current Position: Postdoc, University of Iowa

Jacob Miller, MD PhD, 2020-2022

Mentor: Peg Nopoulos, MD
Graduate School: University of South Dakota
Medical School: University of South Dakota
Psychiatry Residency: University of Iowa
INSPIRE Research: Cognitive impairment after focal brain lesions.
Current Position: Division Chief, Unity Point Health St. Luke's Hospital

Victoria Muller Ewald, PhD, 2020-2022

Mentor: Krystal Parker, PhD
Graduate School: University of Iowa
INSPIRE Research:  I study how the cerebellum contributes to cognitive processes such as interval timing. My INSPIRE research project involves evaluating whether transcranial-magnetic stimulation of the cerebellum helps alleviate cognitive symptoms in bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and autism.
Current Position: Postdoc, University of Iowa

Ki-Won Nam, MD, 2017-2019

Mentor: BC Ho, MD
Medical School: Catholic University of Degau, South Korea
Psychiatry Residency: University of Iowa
INSPIRE Research: Applied machine learning and natural language processing algorithms to the clinical notes of psychiatric patients (total N > 200,000) to predict longitudinal progress of psychiatric conditions and statistically assess mental status and suicide risk.
Current Position: Psychiatrist, Seattle Neuropsychiatric Treatment Center

Krystal Nizar, MD PhD, 2019-2020

Mentor: Aaron Boes, MD PhD
Graduate School: University of California, San Diego
Medical School: University of California, San Diego
Psychiatry Residency: University of California, San Francisco

Justin Reber, PhD, 2019-2021

Mentor: Aaron Boes, MD PhD
Graduate School: University of Iowa
INSPIRE Research: I am studied how to derive different predictors of stroke outcome from the connectomes of healthy people.
Current Position: Postdoc, University of Pennsylvania

Josephine Schamp, PhD, 2017-2019

Mentor: Nandakumar Narayanan, MD PhD
Graduate School: University of Iowa
INSPIRE Research: Dr. Schamp established a genetic model (α-synuclein based) to study the role of dopamine in the pathways involving movement, reward, and timing, as well as exploring potential new therapeutics for treatment diseases involving dysfunction or disregulation of dopamine.
Current Position: Assistant Professor, York College

Nicholas Trapp, MD, 2017-2019

Mentor: Aaron Boes, MD PhD
Medical School: University of Nebraska
Psychiatry Residency: Washington University in St. Louis
INSPIRE Research: Dr. Trapp led a three-armed trans magnetic stimulation clinical trial involving schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder.
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa